Iraq: At least 30 dead in blasts, ambush

Published February 20th, 2008 - 12:54 GMT

Ten people died when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a market near the city of Baquba north of Baghdad on Wednesday, an Iraqi army office

Ten people died when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a market near the city of Baquba north of Baghdad on Wednesday, an Iraqi army officer said. "A suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt blew himself up in the market of Muqdadiyah, killing at least 10 people and wounding 15 others," General Ragheb al-Omayri told AFP.

Muqdadiyah is about 45 kilometres northeast of Baquba, capital of Diyala province.

In other violence in Iraq, four policemen were killed while on patrol in the main northern city of Mosul, a police officer said. And a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, killing one woman and wounding eight other people, General Najim al-Juburi and doctor at the local hospital said.

Meanwhile, a massive blast of explosives and Katyusha rockets that killed 15 Iraqi police and troops in a Shiite bastion of Baghdad was a "well-planned ambush," security officials said Wednesday. At least 30 security force members were hurt in Tuesday night's blast in the southeastern Al-Obeidi suburb, a stronghold of the Mahdi Army militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, defence and interior ministry officials said.

Police and troops discovered a truck that had earlier fired rockets at two nearby American military outposts. The explosives were activated by remote control when a large group had clustered around the vehicle, the officials said, according to AFP.

"At around 6 pm four rockets were fired from within Al-Obeidi at each of two (US) military bases near each other," said an interior ministry official. The US military confirmed the attacks, which it said wounded four soldiers.